Scenes from Macbeth

To whet the appetite for The ASC production of Macbeth opening tonight and running through April 1 at the West Side Theater, we chose The Thane of Glamis and Thane of Cawdor Macbeth's single most famous soliloquy and chose two outstanding actors' renditions to present to you here.

The differences are in the nuances, and each illuminates a slightly different Macbeth, a Macbeth with singular perspective on life.  Take a look.  Which is the Macbeth that most closely resembles the Macbeth you envision?

Then come to the theater, and hear Michael Basile's take on the speech.  Half the fun of seeing a Shakespeare play is hearing what you have heard a hundred times done just differently enough that you can hear what you never heard in the speech before.  Somewhere in this monologue,  you will realize that Basile's take has opened a curtain and has shed light on an aspect of the character or the play or/and on your perception of life itself that you had not examined before.